Zelensky pledges judicial reform, including court in smartphone

President Volodymyr Zelensky promised on March 1 that
Ukraine will implement an effective judicial reform which will guarantee the
right of every citizen to an independent and fair court, the presidential press
service reported. Addressing the forum “Ukraine 30. Development of
Justice” in Kyiv, Zelensky reminded that every government in Ukraine had
promised to carry out a judicial reform, but the courts remained unreformed,
corrupt and inefficient.

“We are set to break this vicious circle. An
honest and fair court is exactly the part of my presidential program on which
the implementation of many other parts largely depends,” Zelensky said, adding
that the best anti-corruption bodies lose their meaning if corrupt officials
avoid fair punishment in the courts. “At the legislative level, we can
introduce the best conditions for attracting investment, but it will not work
if the investor is not able to protect their investment right here in a Ukrainian
court. In addition, a successful judicial reform in Ukraine is a catalyst for
our integration into the EU and NATO,” Zelensky said.

Due to the absence of almost a third of judges,
citizens are forced to wait for months and sometimes years for their case to be
heard, Zelensky stressed, highlighting the importance of resuming the work of
the High Qualifications Commission of Judges and improving the procedure for
selecting candidates for the High Council of Justice. He also said that the
reform of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is relevant.

According to Zelensky, another problem is the lack of
honest and independent judges, so it is important to eliminate abuses and
ensure the transparency of the court. “IT solutions can be an effective step
in this direction. By analogy with government services on a smartphone, we seek
– and will certainly do – Court in Smartphone.” Most bureaucratic
procedures will go online, which will speed up the court proceedings, minimize
corruption and opportunities for abuse,” he said.

Yuri Svirko: While no
details of the future Court in Smartphone are immediately available, it seems
that the long-needed and long-promised judicial reform will again dive into
technical details, leaving the core issue of trust and justice unresolved.
Ukraine has to date got enough IT tools for its courts, including the
transparent and easily available unified register of rulings which is, however,
full of strange verdicts that contradict the laws and each other. The system of
automatic random assignment of cases to judges is also in place, but special
cases still go to very special judges. The Court in Smartphone will be
successful in Ukraine only if there is an independent, corruption-free android
judge behind it. Human corruption is the key problem of Ukrainian courts which
are already governed through smartphones owned by top judges and politicians.

So, the key risk that we see here is that after
another reform, Ukraine will get an advanced-looking smartphone-friendly
signboard to the old and corrupt judiciary. Meanwhile, we will see whether
Zelensky’s government will be able to do the smallest step towards the judicial
reform, which is the reload of the High Council of Justice in a way that will
satisfy Ukraine’s western partners, including the IMF.